


It's alright to cry sometimes

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hugs, Langst, Team as Family, Yeah that's it, just a short drabble honestly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-14 01:59:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11773125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Lance missed Earth, more than anything. The team notices how down he is lately, and helps.





	It's alright to cry sometimes

**Author's Note:**

> honestly just me getting used to writing these characters. essentially a character study i guess. might be a bit ooc?

The castle was always so cold and quiet. Lance hated it. 

Growing up where it was always warm in a household where every room had at least two other people already in it, living in the castle with only six other people felt so, so wrong. 

Lance stared out the huge observation deck windows, out into the endless expanse of stars. Sighing, he drew the blanket tighter around himself and hugged his knees, blue eyes full of longing as he stared at the stars. There were no familiar constellations here, nothing to remind him the slightest of home. Home, where the sun beat it's relentlessly warm rays down, where the blue sky met the sparkling sea, where he felt safe and anchored. A familiar ache pressed at Lance’s eyes. No no no, he thought, shaking his head, don’t you dare cry you big baby. Sighing again, he left the observation deck, silently padding back to his room where he curled into himself and fell into a dreamless sleep. 

xxx

The alarms blared to life. Groaning, Lance dragged himself up, feeling worse than he did last night. Sleep did not help in the least. He quickly rubbed on some lotion, taking note of his bags. He would have to treat himself tonight. He tossed on his paladin armor, grabbed his bayard, and sprinted to the control room. Shiro, unsurprisingly, was already there along with Coran and Allura, who was holding an altean contraption he vaguely recognized as a stopwatch. 

“63.12 seconds. Not bad Lance,” Allura began, “though you could be a bit faster. Try to make it under a minute next time.” 

Lance scowled, but he caught himself on time, his most obnoxious grin firmly placed as he shot finger guns at the princess. “Your wish is my command, Princess.” 

Allura scoffed and rolled her eyes. Keith was next to stumble into the room, closely followed by Pidge and Hunk. 

Lance sighed as Allura and Coran led them to the training deck. Hunk and Pidge were chatting animatedly while Keith and Shiro silently prepared for the training session ahead. He hung towards the back, head drooping and not bothering to hide his scowl this time. Of course he’d never be fast enough. Of course he was the only one to be criticized even if he was second. He would never be good enough. 

xxx

Shiro knew something was off as soon as Lance ran into the control room. The bags hung heavily under his eyes. His usually bright blue eyes didn’t have their usually glint in them. He just looked so dull, almost lifeless, the complete opposite of the usually bubbling blue paladin. 

Of course, Shiro noticed Lance wasn’t himself lately. The past week hadn’t been easy on any of them, with continuous training, battles with galra fleets, and diplomatic meetings on freed planets to discuss the Voltron Alliance that Allura was working to form. Everyone was tired, but the blue paladin seemed to be hit the hardest of all. 

Shiro’s eyebrows crinkled with concern as he saw a dark look pass over the blue paladin’s features. It was quickly replaced by a strained grin. 

His eyebrows crinkled further as he watched Lance have the exchange with Allura. His grin was obviously fake and he clearly wasn’t even trying to flirt with the princess. Although Lance recently had been laying back from flirting with the Princess as a sense of camaraderie and respect settled over them all for the Princess, he would still spout a pick up line here and there along with a cheeky wink. Today he just looked more defeated and tired than Shiro had ever seen him. 

Shiro decided to have a chat with Lance later. He only hoped that he could help, though he doubted the blue paladin would open up so easily. 

xxx 

Keith was surprised when he entered the control deck. Not by the fact that Shiro was in there already, no, but by the fact that Lance, of all people, Lance, was there before him. It was fairly well known that the blue paladin had trouble waking up in the mornings. 

“78.23 seconds. Not bad Keith,” Allura announced. Keith did not comment on that. He was more intent on observing Lance. 

Keith stared at Lance, who was currently leaning against the wall, arms crossed against his chest and glaring holes into floor. It didn't even seem that he had noticed Keith’s entrance at all. Usually a situation like this called for insufferable amounts of bragging from the blue paladin, but at the moment, he was silent. Completely silent. It unnerved Keith a bit. 

Crinkling his brow, he turned to Shiro, who had a similar expression on his face as he watched Lance. 

“Is he… alright?” Keith whispered. 

Shiro ran a hand through his white tuft. “Honestly, I don't know. Lance didn't even try to flirt with Allura just now.”

Keith brows climbed to his hairline. That was certainly unusual. 

When everyone had arrived, Allura led them to the training room. It's was unnervingly more silent than usual. Keith spared a few glances at Lance, worry blatant on his face. 

He hoped that Lance would be able to shake off whatever weird mood he had on after training. It had always helped Keith. 

xxx 

Pidge stumbled into the control deck panting heavily. She bent over, resting her hands on her knees before catching her breath and standing upright again, taking in the room. 

Keith and Shiro were by the corner, talking quietly. Hmm. She seemed to the the third to make it so far. She allowed herself a smile. This was the fastest she had ever gotten into the control deck, relative to the speed of the other paladins. 

“89.47 seconds. Fourth Pidge, but not a bad time!” Allura announced. 

Fourth? Pidge looked around in confusion, spotting Lance leaning against the wall. Oh. She was surprised that she hadn't noticed him. He was usually so loud in boasting about his feats, however small they were. It seemed that the blue paladin was faster than she was. Oh well. She sighed and slinked over to the wall, nudging Lance. 

“What's gotten into you? You’re usually not this fast.” 

Lance glanced at her and just gave her a tired smile. Pidge raised a brow. There was no hair ruffling or teasing from Lance. 

“Woke up on the wrong side of bed?” Pidge asked. 

Lance shrugged, earning a worried look from the green paladin. He didn't seem to notice as he went back to staring at the floor. 

Pidge’s frown deepened. She had never seen Lance so quiet and looking so defeated before. Casting a glance over at Shiro and Keith, she saw that they wore similar expressions to hers. They were clearly worried. 

She waited on Hunks arrival to discuss Lance’s conduction with Hunk. He would know how to bring Lances spirits up, right?

xxx

“95.08 seconds,” Allura announced as Hunk entered the room, a bit breathless. “Alright paladins, now that everyone's here, let's head to the training deck.”

Hunk quietly shuffled after Allura along with everyone else. Glancing around, he could tell something was off. All the paladins seemed to be wearing similar dark expressions. There was an uneasiness in the air. 

He saw pidge pass him a quiet look before motioning to Lance, who walked quietly at the pack of the group, missing his usual vigor and banter. 

Hunk frowned. Something was definitely wrong. Lance was usually never like this. Never this quiet. 

xxx 

Training was hell. Allura was the slave driver she regularly was, but today it was just so much worse. He practically collapsed on the couch afterwards, with the rest of the team not far behind. 

Lance’s head pounded with an unforgiving headache, courtesy of the lack of sleep he had the night before. He was very aware of the bags under his eyes and the dullness of his skin, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He was also acutely aware of the looks his teammates were shooting him and the hurried whispers behind his back.

It aggravated him. Very much. 

They acted as though he was made of glass, like some fragile mantelpiece, not to be touched. Not one of them approached him to talk. The most contact he had that day was a pat on the shoulder from Hunk. That was it. 

He grit his teeth and fought the sting behind his eyes. No. He would not cry. He didn't dare. 

He knew it was selfish, but he just wished for some contact. A hug would be nice. At the start of this entire journey Hunk would be the one to offer them, but as time passed he soon had little free time, too caught up in repairs and working with Coran and Pidge to offer the support and warmth he sought. Pidge worked tirelessly all night as well. She had the weight of all those projects and the task of finding her family to worry about. If anything, she was the one who needed a hug, and as ready as lance was to give her that, he knew she would refuse. Coran had an entire ship to maintain. He wa stage only one who knew exactly how the ship worked, doing a job by himself that a whole team should be working on. All three were so busy. He couldn't bother them for something as petty as a hug. 

Shiro and Keith were off limits as well. Shiro was their leader. He wouldn't engage in something like a hug. Not that he didn't care about the team, it was just that he had an image to uphold. Shiro always seemed so distant to Lance, even when he was only three feet away. The respect that Lance had for the ann since childhood never wore away, no matter how much time Lance spent with Shiro. And Keith. Keith. If he didn't hate him already, he would now. Lance knew he dug himself a hole when he instigated the whole “rivalry” thing. It's just, he wanted to measure up to Keith, perfect Keith, in some way, to have some fighting chance to get close to him, that he felt it was necessary. He knew he rubbed off as petty and annoying, but he was too late to reverse the damage now. And that left Allura. Though Lance wa alive to have a hug from her, he knew it was impossible. She was an alien princess and he, a soldier, if he could even be called that. Lance knew his flirting was annoying her, but if he stopped, he had nothing to talk to her about. They were just so different. So he kept up the flirting, just to have some ground to interact with the princess on. 

Lance closed his eyes and sighed again, making a move to sit up. 

He was met with a barricade of arms, surrounding him completely in warmth. 

xxx 

They all felt Lance tense under there arms, but no one loosened their grasp on him. If anything all of them held on tighter. Soon, they could all feel him relax and burrow deeper into their arms. 

When he finally lifted his face to look each of them in the eye, they could see the wetness in his eyes, threatening to spill. 

He offered a weak smile. “What's the big idea guys?” 

“Just be quiet and let us hug you, you idiot,” Pidge grumbled as she tightened her hold around his waist.

Hunk gave him a smile that pulled angels from their clouds. “You just looked like you needed it buddy.” 

Keith awkwardly patted his shoulder. “You don't have to keep it all inside you know. We know you're homesick.” 

Shiro reached to ruffle his hair. “Lance, you know we’re always here for you, right? We’re a team. We always will be. It's alright to come to us when you need it. You’re not a bother Lance, you never were or will be.”

Lance felt the sting behind his eyes again. 

He didn't hold back this time. 

They stayed like that for a while. Everyone holding Lance as he cried, his sobs wracking his entire frame. 

Even the Allura and Coran joined the pile at some point. 

After a while the sobs quieted. Lance turned to face them once again, this time a small, but genuine smile on his face. 

“You better,” Keith snorted. 

Lance laughed like he hadn't in ages. The others soon joined in.


End file.
